Why health insurance costs are going through the roof

What kind of a novel, communistic idea is it to allow sick people with pre-existing conditions to have health insurance ("Care First proposes 25 percent rate jump," April 25)?

Previously, sick people and people with pre-existing conditions were not even allowed to buy coverage, which kept costs down and profits up.

Health care in the U.S. costs at least double what it costs in any other country in the world. There are several reasons for this, but one of them is not that the U.S. has better care. Increasingly, health care in the U.S. is falling behind that in the rest of the world.

There is only one place that we lead the world in health care and that is in costs, which are far higher here than anywhere else. The main reason for that is that we are the only country in the world where health care is a for-profit business.

Your doctor often owns an X-ray machine, an MRI, CAT scan equipment and other expensive machines, all of which have to be paid for. That is why you or your child have to be sent for numerous expensive tests when you visit a doctor for a simple ear ache, a pulled muscle or an upset tummy.

The health insurance companies are some of the most profitable businesses in the world. They employ hundreds of people whose only job is to find reasons not to cover your claim. And watch out if you get sick because they will stop your coverage quicker than they can raise your rates.

Don't even get me started on drugs. Whatever happened to "take two aspirin and call me in the morning?" Aspirin cost about a penny each, so why offer those when you can prescribe something else that does the same thing for $10 or $50 apiece?